Deakin earns All-American status in both freestyle and Greco Roman

Legacy's state champion Ryan Deakin and teammate Nolan Funk had the chance to represent the state of Colorado in the Cadet and Junior National Championships, formally known as the Fargo Nationals.

"I was not expecting that," said Funk after he stepped foot in the FargoDome. "I think there were 21 or 22 mats out and a huge raised one in the middle and it is a wrestler's dream just to get there."

For Deakin, who went a perfect 45-0 this past season en route to the Class 5A 113-pound title at the Pepsi Center, he wasn't going to be satisfied with just going to North Dakota.

Legacy's Ryan Deakin, seen here celebrating his state title at the 5A championships earlier this year, turned in an impressive performance at the Cadet and Junior National Championships (DAVID R JENNINGS / Broomfield Enterprise)

No, he wanted to find a way to the awards stand. And he did so in both disciplines, placing fifth in Greco Roman and seventh in freestyle and earning All-American status in the process.

Deakin reached the podium both times, coming out of brackets that included well over 90 of the nation's best wrestlers. Still, in true competitive fashion, he would have liked to have done better.

"I'm definitely not satisfied with what I did. It's great earning the all-american an what not, but I wanted to do better," said Deakin, who was coached in his matches by University of Northern Colorado coach Troy Nickerson. "In Greco, I was in the semis and I could've been in the finals but I got trapped unguided. And in freestyle, I left some meat on the bone.

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"I'm ready to get back to work and go do better next year."

Said Legacy coach Mike Thompson: "Just to qualify for Fargo like Nolan and him did is a big a big step and then to go out there and win a couple matches is the next level. But to come out of there as an all-american is one thing, but to do what Ryan did — and there are guys out there that have wrestled at the highest levels that have never all-american'ed at Fargo — is awesome."

In a tournament swarming with college coaches, Deakin was approached by places like Northwestern, Duke and Stanford just to name a few.

"It's matter of wrestling these next two years and just keep improving," said Deakin of the next level.

Funk didn't place any sort of expectations on himself going in, especially being relatively new to the sport. But he did go 2-2 in the freestyle competition and in doing so, took in plenty of knowledge on what it takes to be an elite wrestler.

"I knew I wasn't going to win or place high, but I wanted to go out there and win some matches," he said. "And get a lot of wrestling in and try to get the best experience I could while I was out there."

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